4 June 2007
The Prime Minister called for continued dialogue with the authentic voices of Islam and stressed that the voices of Muslim communities in Britain should be heard and appreciated.
Parts of this transcript may have been edited
Read the Prime Minister’s speech
I would like to thank Cambridge University and their partners, the Coexist Foundation and the Weidenfeld Institute for Strategic Dialogue for hosting this important conference. As many of you will know, the Cambridge Inter-Faith Programme is at the forefront of innovative teaching and research in terms of the study of world religions, their inter-relations and their relations with secular society.
The first and most obvious question about this Conference here in London is: why? The first and most obvious answer is that Britain is today a country of two million Muslims in a Europe that has over 20 million Muslims. I would like to pay tribute to our British Muslim communities today. In overwhelming part, they make a significant positive and growing contribution to modern Britain.
We have successful Muslims in all areas of our national life - business, sport, media, culture, the professions. We have our first Muslim MPs, first Muslim Members of the House of Lords; hopefully the next election will bring more and hopefully also the first women Muslim MPs.
Secondly, and again obviously as a result of what is happening in the world today, there is an interest and appetite across all sections of society to know more about Islam in all its diversity. This is not, repeat not, about equating interest in Islam with anxiety over extremism. But it explains, in part, the desire to learn about what moves and motivates our Muslim communities.
However, most of all but less obviously, the reason for this Conference is to allow the many dimensions of Islam to speak about themselves in a more considered, more profound way than the short bursts of news coverage normally permit. When I have met groups of Muslims, especially younger ones - and in any part of Britain - of course the normal issues about foreign policy arise. But actually the predominant complaint is about how they believe their true faith is constantly hijacked and subverted by small, unrepresentative groups who get disproportionately large amounts of publicity.
It is the way of the modern media world that what counts is impact. Those willing to come on television and articulate extreme and violent views make so much more impact than those who use the still small voice of reason and moderation.
The principal purpose of this Conference therefore is to let the authentic voices of Islam, in their various schools and manifestations, speak for themselves.
Some of the most distinguished scholars and religious leaders the world over are gathered here. I ask people to listen to them. They are the authentic voices of Islam. The voices of extremism are no more representative of Islam than the use, in times gone by, of torture to force conversion to Christianity, represents the true teaching of Christ.
In doing this, there is yet another purpose: to reclaim from extremists, of whatever faith, the true essence of religious belief. In the face of so much high profile accorded to religious extremism, to schism, and to confrontation, it is important to show that religious faith is not inconsistent with reason, or progress, or the celebration of diversity. Round the world today, along with the images of violence, are the patient good works of people of different faiths coming together, understanding each other, respecting each other.
Religious faith has much to contribute to the public sphere; is still a thriving part of what makes a cohesive community; is a crucial motivator of millions of citizens around the world; and is an essential if non-governmental way of helping to make society work. To lose that contribution would not just be a pity; it would be a huge backward step.
We shall be studying the outcomes of the Conference with the keenest interest. We hope that the discussions over the next two days will produce ideas which we can explore and take forward - perhaps in partnership with some of you here today. We are especially interested to consider how the messages from this Conference can best be conveyed to grassroots communities.
I want to set this Conference in a broader context. Round the world today there is a new and urgent impetus being given to promulgating the true voices of Islam.
This is especially the case in the field of education. When I visited Indonesia last year, a Muslim majority country of over 200 million, I saw at first hand the way in which religious schools there are reforming to equip their students not just with a sound religious education, but also with training to boost their employment prospects. This work challenges the myth that religious schools need only focus on orthodox religious education. The Pakistani Government too has undertaken an ambitious and difficult programme of madrassa reform, encouraging schools to register and develop a common syllabus and basic standards.
In Singapore, new more interactive teaching methods have been introduced by the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore, moving away from teaching by rote to teaching which is specific to age group, more relevant to the wider context in which students live and more lively.
Many in our Muslim communities in the UK are encouraging reform and change in our madrassas here.
The Bradford Council of Mosques has agreed to incorporate citizenship education in the curriculum for their madrassas, an important initiative, which we hope will be adopted right across the country. And it is right to encourage links between schools in the state sector and institutions that provide religious education, given the hugely important role these institutions play in so many children’s education and well-being.
But the role of education goes much wider than simply religious education. At the recent Middle East World Economic Forum, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, announced the creation of a groundbreaking $10 billion foundation to promote education in Arab countries. The foundation will focus on human development, supporting and empowering young minds and focusing on research, education and investment in the infrastructure of knowledge. It will provide scholarships for study at world-reputed institutions. In neighbouring Qatar, the Government has invited top international universities to develop an "Education City" with the aim of becoming the beacon of educational excellence in the Arab world.
Many of these initiatives are designed to tap into the ages-old tradition of Islam where - in line with the Koran - knowledge is revered and Muslims urged to pursue it.
Then there are the many signs of political reform in the Muslim world, and the encouragement of women’s rights. Suffrage has been awarded to women in Kuwait and women stood for the first time in Bahrain’s elections last year.
In Morocco, fifty women have been appointed as state preachers for the first time. They will be able to give basic religious instruction in Mosques and support in prisons, schools and hospitals.
As highlighted by Emine Bozkurt’s work, the position of women has improved in Turkey over recent years, with, in particular, a strong emphasis on education for girls.
In Afghanistan, the Afghan Women’s Hour is a programme that would have been inconceivable not long ago. It offers girls, their mothers and their grandmothers a place to speak and to listen to one another. The full gamut of issues has been aired: standing for Parliament, learning to read, starting a business, the prevention of maternal mortality.
In Jordan, last month, a conference took place, with the assistance of Queen Rania, to build and empower Muslim female leadership across the Middle East.
There is also a clear move across the world to assert strongly the moderate and true authority of Islam.
In Jordan, in 2004, under the leadership of HM King Abdullah, a statement, the Amman Message was released seeking to declare what Islam is and what it is not, and how it should be manifested.
I was deeply impressed when, the next year, the King convened 200 leading scholars from no less than 50 countries, who unanimously - unanimously - issued a Declaration on 3 basic issues: the validity of different Islamic schools of thought and theology; the forbidding of declarations of apostasy between Muslims; and criteria for the issuing of fatwas - religious edicts - to pre-empt the spawning of illegitimate versions.
This was a clear message that Islam is not a monolithic faith, but one made up of a rich pattern of diversity, albeit all flowing from the same fount. This rich diversity needs to be more clearly appreciated and to inform our public debates more fully.
Also in 2005, the summit meeting of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference issued a declaration and a 10-year action plan. The summit reaffirmed Islam as a religion of moderation and modernity. It rejected bigotry and extremism. It supported work to establish the values of Islam as those of understanding, tolerance, dialogue and multilateralism. It adopted the principles of the Amman Message - as indeed did other gatherings of scholars around the world.
And in 2006 the Topkapi declaration emphasised that Muslims have long played a distinguished part in European history and encouraged them to continue doing so. It stressed the opportunities for Muslims to flourish as full citizens the pluralistic societies which increasingly characterise every country in this continent, especially since the fall of Communism.
I draw four lessons from these and other similar examples.
Firstly, that the role of theology and philosophy is vital to Islam, indeed as it is to any religion, in helping its adherents to engage with the modern world whilst drawing on its core principles.
Secondly, Muslims overwhelmingly want to play a full part in the complex and diverse societies in which they find themselves - both contributing and shaping those societies. Most seek to play a part as loyal citizens of their countries and as loyal Muslims. This is of course contrary to the often crude portrayals in the media or by those who deal only in stereotypes and seek to whip up Islamophobic sentiment.
Thirdly, others in societies in which Muslims are co-citizens must also evolve and adapt in how they respond to the changing nature of their societies. This is a two way street. Each must learn from the other, about the other.
And fourthly, and as a natural consequence of my first three points, the great religions of the world most continue the dialogue between them, and help interfaith work to grow. Greater mutual understanding should be the aim of all of us. And a closer working together to tackle the needs of our shared world - needs which are often pressing and cry out for action.
We publish today the Siddiqui Report on the UK and what more we need to do to encourage the right intellectual and academic debate on these issues here in Britain.
We intend to follow-up on many of Dr. Siddiqui’s recommendations and will be providing significant funding to deliver on this commitment.
None of this, incidentally, is designed to screen out a healthy rigorous debate about the controversies of foreign policy.
Many Christians disagreed with the decisions I took over Afghanistan or Iraq.
Leave aside for a moment whether they were the right or wrong decisions. What is damaging is if they are seen in the context of religious decisions.
The religious faith of either country was as irrelevant to the decision as was the fact that the Kosovo Albanians we rescued were Muslims, suffering under a Serbian dictatorship, whose religion happened to be Christian Orthodox; or in helping the people of Sierra Leone, 70 per cent of whom are Muslim.
This point is crucial at a number of different levels. The problem between faiths and communities, as too often in life and in politics, is not where there is disagreement about decisions; but where there is misunderstanding about motives. In turn, this is often derived from a misunderstanding of a deeper sort: a basic ignorance about the other’s faith. I was asked the other day by a young person if it was true Muslims wanted to kill all Christians. "No", I said. "And did you know that Muslims revere Jesus as a Prophet?" The youngster was astounded, barely able to believe there are significant passages in the Koran devoted to Jesus, and to Mary. I recommend the book "The Muslim Jesus" to anyone interested in this aspect.
But the point is this: one part of such a Conference is to explain Islam to the world: its common roots with Judaism and Christianity, how it began, how it developed, how far removed it is, from the crude and warped distortion of the extremists. Where there is ignorance, there is distrust, and sometimes hatred. Understanding is a great healer.
So this Conference is not about Government lecturing the Muslim world, or our Muslim communities. It is rather an opportunity to listen; to hear Islam’s true voice; to welcome and appreciate them; and in doing so, to join up with all those who believe in a world where religious faith is respected because faiths respect each other as well as those of no faith; and are prepared in holding to their own truth, not to disrespect the truth clear to others. I wish you well in your deliberations.
Questions and Answers
Question:
Thank you Prime Minister for your speech. I agree with the rhetoric that has come out. Can I say that we are more concerned at what is happening at the local level, and whilst you were quite right in saying that you are not lecturing to the Muslim community, I wish that you do lecture to your mainstream political colleagues at the local level because all the good work that is done at the local level by the Muslim community in trying to engage is very severely and seriously undermined by the callous disregard to the rights and needs of the Muslim community by mainstream politicians when they are making decisions which affect the lives of the Muslim community. So I do hope that the government and the leaders of the three main political parties do emphasise to your colleagues at the local level to regard the Muslims as equal citizens, and not to disregard them because they form a very tiny minute proportion of the population.
Question:
Thank you Mr Blair for your very excellent introduction. I would like to ask you something about the approach towards Muslims. In the last 10 years a lot has been changed, we have seen 9/11, in the Netherlands we had the murder of Theo Van Gogh, and the result was that the approach, the rhetorics became very harsh towards Muslims. There were attacks on mosques, but also on churches, Muslim schools. And what we have seen is that it has become fashionable also for authorities to become very harsh towards Muslims. OK I have now good hope with the new government, together with the coalition of the Social Democrats in the Netherlands, but I want to ask you how it developed with you, you have had a very long experience as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, have you had some changes in your opinion towards the Muslims and the Muslim community?
Question:
Thank you very much everybody. I feel honoured and highly educated by the remarks from Prince Charles and by the Rt Hon Prime Minister, and I never knew that they know much about Islam and the relationship between Islam and Christianity and the three major religions, until I heard their remarks. But in the remarks by the Rt Hon Prime Minister I observed that there is still a serious effect in the diplomatic exogenesis in terms of the diplomatic relationship, the diplomatic actions which while the decision might have been taken in favour of the country, but conveys very negative impression for the majority of the Muslim population. How would he, if faced with this question, consider advice or legacy on the basis of his long ten years of experience so that this type of attitude is amended or improved by avoiding giving negative impressions of the diplomatic actions or utterances taken by the Head of the Government.
Prime Minister:
First of all in response to you Kurshed from the British Muslim Forum. I think we have got to work with you to drive down this message to the local level. I think as we were saying earlier today, Ruth Kelly and her department are indeed trying to make sure that this happens properly. But I think we are aware of the fact that we need to do more to engage because the level of engagement has to be at a different intensity than any before.
I will just describe to you the problem from our perspective sometimes, is that whenever I go into the Hindu community, or the Sikh community, they say you spend all your time talking with Muslims, you never bother with us; and then when I am talking to the Muslim community people say …well anyway you get the picture. Now part of this is just politics but I think what we need to do is to work through these issues closely with you and one of the reasons why working with the Forum is important is precisely to get to the point there.
Let me come to Sheikh Ahmed’s question and then come back to Emine Bozkurt.
I think in relation to diplomatic decisions or foreign policy decisions, I think the important thing really is you know that at least there is understanding of why the decisions are made. As I say, right or wrong they may be, but why they are made I think is important. But I do obviously also believe that of all the different issues, and this is certainly what I have learnt over time, is that I think of all the different issues a solution to the Israel-Palestine question would be the single most important thing that I think could reduce some of the misunderstanding, but also take away from those of extremism a cause that they exploit actually without helping.
And that really brings me to the point that Emine Bozkurt was making: what have I learnt over the 10 years? One of the reasons for holding this conference, and there was a lot of thought given as to whether we could hold such a conference, and incidentally the moment you decide to do something like this there is a great wave of criticism. Now I get fairly used to that. But who should be invited, who shouldn’t be invited? How can I as a British Prime Minister who is not a Muslim you know come and speak at a conference about Islam? All of these are issues that people raise and sometimes I think they raise them to prevent us talking to each other properly. Because actually the important thing is that we are not put off having conferences like this where people come together and can speak about an issue that now matters to everybody, and it does matter to everybody. And when the Sheikh was kindly saying that Prince Charles or myself have a certain level of knowledge, and to be fair to Prince Charles incidentally this is something that he has worked on for many more years than most of us. I mean the fact of the matter is this dialogue is an important part of trying to work out what is going on in the world, and if we don’t have it, however imperfectly and difficult it will be managed, then we are not getting to the heart of things.
And there is huge and profound ignorance about Islam. If all you do is listen to the news every day you would get one view, pretty much, and that view is often highly extreme. And one of the things that we wanted to do today is at least to challenge those in our media also to accept at least that there is a different more authentic voice that should at least be heard.
And one of the things therefore I have learnt over this period of time is the absolute critical fundamental importance of dialogue. And the reason it is important that dialogue also happens between religious faiths is that again the reality is that that is an issue, so you have got to talk about it and explore it.
And you know the other thing about this is, I was thinking when you were speaking about Northern Ireland and the peace process there where of course one aspect of this was a severe and fundamental divide between Catholics and Protestants. But actually it was only when proper dialogue began that the divisions and the hatred reduced. So this is an important thing that we can try to do. And I think we are only at the beginning of this process incidentally, there is a lot more that we need to do in the years to come.
Question:
Mr Prime Minister it was very constructive from you to speak about a disengagement between a religious belief and the process of decision making. But don’t you think Mr Prime Minister that it would be more constructive, more to recognise the injustices that the Muslim world suffered, from Indonesia to Morocco, and this will help people to be more courageous to raise their voices against hijacking Islam in the name of defending Islamic interests and against these injustices?
Question:
In the name of Allah I would like to thank His Excellency the Prime Minister, I would like to thank His Excellency the Prime Minister for his distinguished statement and for the views expressed and I agree with him that Islam calls for tolerance and that extremism is only the doing of a small number of Muslims. But what I would like to say now in particular is that the Islamic world, in particular in the Middle East, suffer a great deal and I don’t have to go into detail with the Prime Minister about this because the Prime Minister knows everything about what happens there. Can we change the strategy and put forward another strategy that brings the principles and the interests together, strategies can be in the service of interests, this is understandable, but how can we present a strategy for those countries that reconcile the interests, even the interests of the western nations, and also the principles, the human principles of humanity, justice and peace. So for peace to prevail all over the world I think that this is such an important issue and it is a question we have the right to pose. Also the Prime Minister as a leader can contribute when he retires even in this field a great deal.
Question:
I am from the Official Islamic Community from Austria. Hearing you Mr Prime Minister, I am very glad to hear your words, it is you know a step higher than we are hearing in Austria and having our history in Austria of acknowledgment of Islam and Muslim, I have a question or two. The first one is, some of the European societies are dealing with the issue of Muslim integration as a matter of security politics. Because of that, and as a result of that, there are some countries are raising or building up … focusing on that, attacking Muslims. I would like to hear your comments and how could we deal with this?
Prime Minister:
First of all thank you for the job offer. It tends to happen to me rather a lot at the moment whenever I go to any conference, but I will come specifically to the point you make as well in a moment.
You see I think that the first two questions are very interesting and very important questions because they touch on a sense of profound grievance in parts of the Islamic world. And - let me try and choose my words carefully here - I think what is important is that we deal with the injustice and the grievance because it is right to deal with injustice, but not because it is right to deal with injustice to Muslims rather than injustice to anyone else.
So my view has always been that if we want to bring people together in the international community there are many different aspects of this, but the most important aspect is that we have an agenda that is based on justice and equality for all and across all faiths and all races. Now the reason why I think that is important is that it means for example in the G8 conference that I will go to later this week in Germany it is important we deal with poverty in Africa, not because there are 250 million Muslims in Africa, but because it is wrong that people grow up in poverty. And I think what we have to understand is that where there is a very specific sense of injustice to the Muslim community we should recognise that that exists, as I think it does in the Middle East in the lack of a peace process there, but that our motivation in dealing with it is not simply because of the relationship with the Muslim community, it is because for all people we should have a concept of justice that prevents discrimination, allows prosperity and opportunity for people.
And what I am really trying to say is that the nature of this dialogue between us on injustice is important, it is important because, yes, it is being raised from within the Islamic community, but it cannot stop at the borders of the Islamic community, and I think that is quite an important way that we position this argument. Otherwise we can create actually intolerance or misunderstanding when we are trying to do the opposite.
And I think, Excellency, what you were saying is absolutely right in the sense that across the Middle East we have to have principles and interest aligned properly so that people there, again whatever their background, are able to get the opportunity that they require, and this I do believe requires a different way of engaging with the region and with the people there.
Which brings me to the point that our Austrian colleague was making, and here again is where I would say my thinking has changed over the years. When we are in a position of political responsibility and we are trying to take decisions for our country as a political leader then it is very easy to see the issues of extremism that we face at the moment, coming from within the Islamic community, and we then react to that and if we are not careful our dialogue becomes a security dialogue and doesn’t become a broader dialogue.
Now one of the reasons again for having this conference is to try to get beyond that, because one thing I have learned is that though we need the security, because we need that, if there are people trying to kill us we have got to protect ourselves against them. But I have become acutely aware of the fact that we will not defeat this by security alone, or even in the end primarily that it will only be defeated if we have a sufficiently strong motivating idea that is better than their motivating idea. And that is why we need this coming together of people like yourselves, and people from outside the Islamic community, so that we are able in a sense to join forces, not simply in security but in ideas, and in understanding, and in reaching across the divide. And I think that is very important.
My worry about the debate in Europe today is that it does need to be conducted at that level right across Europe as well. You know this is, to open up another whole topic for debate about Turkey and membership of the European Union, but you know the criteria that we have for European membership should be applied to any candidate country equally, and it would be in my view a great pity if we started to add additional criteria that were not to do with the criteria that applied to others, if you understand my meaning.
So I think the quality of that debate across Europe at the moment is actually very, very important and I think we need to be highly sensitive to it.